Pokémon GO is turning three today, and like any good birthday there’s plenty of celebration to be had and to enjoy as part of the journey. What does that mean for you, the player? First and foremost there’s going to be some experiences that are sticking around for good starting tomorrow, and then there are going to be some experiences that are starting tomorrow but will only last until July 6 and September 2. So you’ll want to keep that in mind when playing.
One of the in-game events happening from tomorrow is that players will have chances to encounter a handful of different Shiny Alolan Pokémon within the game. These Pokémon include Diglett, Rattata, Sandshrew, Vulpix, Grimer, Meowth, Geodude, and Exeggutor. If you’ve had trouble encountering any of these Pokémon up till now, or at least as often as you’d like, this event may be just the time for you to get a boost and perhaps collect more of each one.
There isn’t a timer associated with this one here so it seems that it’ll be available indefinitely, though you will have to wait until at least 1PM Pacific time as this is when the increased encounters will go live. In addition to the increased encounters for the Shiny Alolan Pokémon listed, there will be new avatar items featuring the style of the team leaders that will become available in the Style Shop if you feel like spending a little bit of cash.
These are in-game purchases, so you will need to fork over real money if you want to spruce up the look of your avatar while playing. That said, if you value the designs of these new avatar styles, paying a little money for them isn’t necessarily such a bad idea, and these kinds of micro transactions are always better than ones for items which give out any sort of boost to gameplay as these are purely aesthetic and don’t give anyone an advantage over other players.
While you’re out an about you might run into a Pikachu with a party hat on. This is part of the celebration event as well and it also starts at 1PM Pacific. To see these festive Pikachu you’ll need to snap a GO! photo, so make sure to utilize the feature as often as you can if you don’t want to miss out, as these Pikachu are only sticking around in game until July 6 which means you only have a little over a week to find them.
If you haven’t been playing with your friends as often and you want a reason to get them back into the game, starting tomorrow and continuing until September 2, there will be extra incentive to play with friends as you’ll get boosts when you take down raid bosses together. If you happen to take down a raid boss with a friend during this time period you will be able to earn additional bonus premier balls to catch them with and beating them will be quicker than normal.
There will be lower costs for trading Pokémon to your friends too. Trading is a relatively newer feature that the game hasn’t had for long, and it costs Stardust to complete a trade, but during the event and until September 2 you can complete trades for 1/4 less Stardust than normal. Lastly, new special research is being added into the game for any trainers that are level 10 or higher which will assist them with their adventures, so now’s the time jump back in if you need to level up.
Pokémon GO is developed by the same company which just recently released Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, Niantic, and features graphics and gameplay that is fairly similar just with a different theme. If you like Pokémon GO then you may want to check out the Harry Potter game too as it might be something fun when you need a break from training Pokémon.